Just under two years ago I wrote a post about Elizabeth Jane Howard’s novel The Light Years, the first novel in a series of five – The Cazalet Chronicles – a family saga spanning three generations and unfolding between 1937 and 1950. The Light Years covers the build-up to the Second World War and – in culinary terms – is a masterclass in the writer’s use of food to locate a story in a particular moment in time. Continue reading “Food as distraction”
Author: rebecca.selman@btinternet.com
Racial passing
As well as exposing the continued ill-treatment and oppression of people from black and minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds, the Black Lives Matter movement also served as a reminder – to me and countless others – of the huge range of black-authored literature which is often overlooked by white readers and critics alike. Various websites and booksellers published lists of must-read BAME authors, and I was certainly glad to be pointed in the direction of a number of great books (both non-fiction and fiction), some of which I’d not even heard of, let alone read. Continue reading “Racial passing”
Food for running
Until recently I was a keen – though not particularly good – runner: Saturday morning park runs, interspersed with a couple of other early morning sessions, a half-marathon most years and a one-off London marathon (never again!). Whilst a long-standing joint issue has, at least for the time being, put the kibosh on that particular activity for me, running still remains close to my heart. Continue reading “Food for running”
Food and grief
Winner of the Women’s Prize for Fiction in 2020, Maggie O’Farrell’s novel Hamnet imagines the relationship between William Shakespeare and his wife Anne Hathaway, and the death of their son Hamnet. Continue reading “Food and grief”